Fujifilm instax mini Evo Hybrid Camera

The Fujifilm instax mini Evo exists for the person whose phone contains 14,000 photos and whose walls contain precisely none. Pure instant cameras have charm, certainly, but they also turn a badly timed blink into a tiny, expensive family heirloom. The mini Evo brings a little adult supervision to the chaos: capture digitally, choose later, print on instax mini film.

That hybrid arrangement is the whole point. It is both a camera and a Bluetooth-linked smartphone printer, so selected phone photos can join the physical world without requiring a separate gadget whose sole job is to make your desk even more appliance-like. Remote shooting and printed-image transfer give it a broader role than a one-note novelty camera.

We think it earns a place as the less impulsive route into instant photography. There are 10 lens effects and 10 film effects, for 100 possible combinations, which is plenty of room for tasteful experimentation and plenty more room for turning a perfectly normal lunch into a 1970s crime-scene still.

The practical limits remain firmly analogue. It takes FUJIFILM instax mini film, sold separately, and the internal battery is not removable. Still, a camera that lets a photo survive as a file before asking it to become a little printed object is a surprisingly sensible piece of whimsy.